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Media Credit: photo by Caelan Millerd The School of Social Work will challenge its conditional accreditation status. (photo by Caelan Millerd) [Click to enlarge]

The council that accredits the UNO School of Social Work says there's more the school can do to better serve its students and community.

But Theresa Barron-McKeagney, director of the school, says the council is wrong.

In early February, the Council on Social Work Education sent a letter to UNO's School of Social Work, citing two areas in which the school could improve: Student-to-teacher ratios and informing constituents about the school's work.

The commission that reviewed the school said the student-to-teacher ratios were too high, and that the school isn't doing enough to reach the community, the state leaders and other constituents.

The school will retain its accreditation, but has a year to fix the problems, according to the Karen Robard, an accreditation specialist from the council.

But Barron-McKeagney said the matter is one of form, and not one of substance.

"I believe there were a couple of ways where the commission may not have been clear," Barron-McKeagney said.

Every eight years, the school must go through reaccreditation, submitting a full and complex report, including a site visit, to the council.

A commission then reviews the report, finds strengths and weaknesses, and relays them to the school. If anything is not in compliance with one or more standards, the commission responds with three actions: conditional accredited status, withdrawal of accreditation or order another site visit at the expense of the school.

UNO's School of Social Work was given conditional status, meaning the school has until December to fix the noncompliance issues.

But Barron-McKeagney said the school won't need a year. She's drafting a letter to the commission to clarify and articulate any confusion the commission may have had with her report. Then in June, she will present her case to the council in person.

Afterward, she expects the school to be taken off of conditional accreditation.

She said the report the school submitted may not have been clear: The school has a strong student-to-teacher ratio, somewhere in the area of 6.5 students to every teacher for at least one of the social work programs.

Amy Panning, a social work major and the senator for the College of Public Administration and Social Work, said the opposite of the commission's report is true: There aren't enough teachers.

"The teachers are great, they've been really wonderful," Panning said. "But maybe if they had more teachers, they could accept more people into the program."

Panning said only about 25 students are accepted into the bachelor's program every year, and about 60 apply. Competition is tight, but the school prides itself on its close contact and work with the students, she said.

Barron-McKeagney said the site visit went extremely well, and the commission's visitors were overwhelmed with the community response to the School of Social Work.

Somewhere along the line, though, the communications became crossed, and the commission said the school could do more to reach the community.

Panning, who is also part of a student social work organization, said the school could do more to inform the public.

"I think maybe it would be nice to publicize their work more," she said. "It may be hard to know what's going on if you're not in the college."

But Barron-McKeagney is optimistic. She said the school regularly updates its Web site, sends out newsletters and is in constant communication with community and state leaders in social care.

"I believe things are going to be fine," she said. "If we can't do it in June, we can definitely do it by December."

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